Here’s a little test that will help you understand if you’re conducting yourself like an ‘average’ Canadian these days or carving out your own path.
The banks have begun to issue what amounts to early indicators of how consumers are handling financial matters – and they do it by tracking the activity in their customers’ accounts and on their cards. Basically, they can track spending pretty closely and virtually in real time which gives us more timely information than waiting for StatsCan to compile all this information.
A case in point is over at RBC where they have determined that retail or consumer spending is moving from discretionary goods to services. While they consider retail spending to be ‘flat’ and likely to slow as higher interest rates work their way through the system, it is showing more signs of life than it did earlier in the year.
The trend shows Canadians heading into summer with plans to travel and to dine out more frequently while goods purchases such as gifts and computer software are falling.
